When I was in high school (9/80 to 6/84), some of my dad's friends brought me to a few of the club tournaments they fished in every year. I seem to recall they were dubbed the "Tri State Tournament". The Massachusetts leg was in June (I think they all stayed in hotels in Falmouth). The Maine leg was in Old Orchard Beach in September. The Rhode Island leg was in October, and I don't recall what town they stayed in.

I do recall the name of the Maine club was "Maine Linesiders".

Did any of you guys fish in those tournaments? Are they still around?

A couple of the guys from Maine were Al Finley and his brother Jimmie Finley. Not sure if those names ring a bell.

I seem to recall that there was a guy in the group from Peabody, MA (?) that built most of the custom rods at that time. I have two of them. I think his name was Charlie Lightbody.

Tri State is still well represented a numerous clubs fish and many people here fish. I did up until a few years ago (too many tournaments, too little time).

One club up in Maine that fishes these a lot is the Portland Surfcasters. Serveral Mass & Rhody clubs like Mass Striped Bass, P.I. Surfcasters, and Weekeapaug Surfcasters fish this pretty religously...

I remember some time back about 94 fishing Nun's Beach (I was not fishing the tourney) and running into people from RI fishing the Tourney...

FYI:

http://www.msba.net/tournaments/tri_state_tournament.htm

http://www.freewebs.com/tristatetournament/index.htm